The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to electrical connectors that electrically couple circuit boards.
Some known connector systems include connectors mounted to circuit boards. The connectors mate with one another to electrically couple the circuit boards. The connectors may be mounted to motherboards, backplanes, midplanes, and other circuit boards to provide for the communication of data and/or power signals there between. Due to space constraints, some of the circuit boards need to be oriented perpendicularly with respect to other circuit boards. For example, daughterboards are typically oriented perpendicular with respect to a midplane board to which the daughterboards are coupled. In order to orient the daughter and midplane boards perpendicular with respect to one another, at least one of the connectors typically is a right angle connector.
Some known right angle connectors include mating faces that engage a mating face of another connector and mounting faces that engage the circuit board to which the right angle connector is mounted. The mating and mounting faces are perpendicular with respect to one another. The right angle connectors include conductors that extend from the mating face to the mounting face and provide an electronically communicative pathway between the mating and mounting faces. In order to extend between the perpendicularly oriented mating and mounting faces, some conductors include a ninety degree bend within the orthogonal connector. But, the bend in the conductor may impact the electrical impedance characteristic of the connector. For example, the bend in the conductor may locally change a cross-sectional area of the conductor and increase the local electrical impedance characteristic of the conductor. As a result, the connector may have an electrical impedance characteristic that varies through the connector between the mating and mounting faces. Moreover, the space within the right angle connectors may be significantly limiting, thereby increasing the challenge of producing a reliable ninety degree bend in the limited space. Other conductors include two portions that are joined together within the connector by solder. But, the application of solder may vary significantly among conductors and within connectors, thereby introducing impedance variation and reducing the reliability of electrical connections provided by the connector.
Additionally, some right angle connectors are mounted to circuit boards using mounting pins. The mounting pins are coupled with conductors in the connectors. The mounting pins may be press-fit into the circuit boards to retain the pins in the circuit boards. Some known mounting pins are relatively thin and prone to bend or buckle when the connectors are mounted to the circuit boards. For example, the mounting pins may have relatively little mechanical support in directions along the surface of the circuit board. Misalignment of the mounting pins with respect to the circuit board may result in sufficiently large lateral forces being imparted on the mounting pins. These forces may cause the pins to fail by bending or buckling, for example.
A need thus exists for connectors having conductors that provide a more reliable and stable connection between mating and mounting faces that are angled with respect to one another. A need also exists for connectors that have mounting pins that are less prone to buckling when the connectors are mounted to circuit boards.